Police presence heightened as students return to schools

WOODLAND HILLS - More than 9,000 students returned to class Thursday at nine West San Fernando Valley public schools amid tight security as authorities continued hunting for the gunman who shot an LAUSD police officer the day before, leading to campus lockdowns and a massive search.

With the suspect still eluding capture, a heightened police presence was visible around schools as worried parents dropped off their children.

"I'm extremely nervous, obviously, because they haven't found him," said Cynthia Lardizabal, who was dropping off her 15-year-old daughter at El Camino Real High School. "Yesterday was really scary. It was a parent's worst nightmare."

Despite being parked within sight of two motorcycle officers as other patrol cars circled the area, parent Pnina Moore still wasn't totally satisfied with the measures, saying that an open gate to the field should be locked.

"I don't feel so comfortable completely, but if the school says `All children go back to school,' my son is supposed to go to school also," Moore said. "There needs to be strong, strong security."

Several students said their classmates skipped school Thursday and they had tried to stay home themselves because the gunman had not been caught, but said they had been forced to attend class by their parents.

"I don't want another lockdown," said Chris Mcelhoes, a freshman at El Camino.

During the lockdown Wednesday, while most students at nearby Hale Middle School were fed and taken to the bathroom in groups, at El Camino - the campus closest to the shooting - students went without food and were forced to relieve themselves in trash cans in their classrooms.

Once the lockdown was lifted after some five hours, high-schoolers fled the campus.

"We all just ran out, we didn't care if we forgot our backpacks," said Reed Sigmon, a freshman. "We just wanted out of there."

El Camino and eight other public schools, as well as several private campuses, were locked down about noon Wednesday after an LAUSD officer was shot by a suspect he saw breaking into parked cars, officials said.

Officer Jeff Stenroos, an eight-year veteran of the district's police force, was wearing body armor that prevented the bullet from penetrating but suffered bruises and other minor injuries. The shooting prompted a massive response that sent some 350 officers searching door-to-door for the suspect in the suburban neighborhood and closing off a seven-square mile perimeter.

On Thursday, Police Chief Charlie Beck released a composite sketch of the shooting suspect. It depicts a thin white man, in his 40s or 50s, with gray hair pulled back in a ponytail.

"Someone out there knows who this is and we are asking them to step forward to give us information," Beck said.

Councilman Dennis Zine said he will offer a motion at today's City Council meeting to authorize a $75,000 reward for information leading to the suspect. Also, he said the Los Angeles school police union is authorizing a $5,000 reward and the Board of Education is expected to consider a reward offer as well.

Beck praised a West Valley resident, Michael Brodey, who was driving by the scene and saw Stenroos on the ground after he was shot. Brodey used the officer's radio to call in for help.

"I don't consider myself a hero," said Brodey, who has been in the Coast Guard Auxiliary for the past six years and has a rank of coxswain.

"I was just doing what the Coast Guard has trained me to do."

It is not the first time he has responded to an emergency, he said. One involved applying the Heimlich maneuver to a woman who was choking on her dinner at a restaurant and another involved stopping to help a road crew where a worker had been injured.

"This is the third one. I hope I'm done," Brodey said.

Police would not allow Brodey to answer any other questions because he is expected to be a witness if there is a trial.

Beck also defended the size of the police response.

"My job is to ensure the public safety," Beck said. "In a case like this, where you had an individual willing to shoot and try to take the life of an armed uniform peace officer, we were dealing with a situation of an individual showing wanton disregard.

"We would have preferred to have a smaller area, but it took some time to respond and, in that case, you go big. We did what we thought was correct."

Some parents, who had to wait hours to pick up their children in lines that stretched around the block, criticized the length of time of the lockdown.

"This was not the first lockdown in LAUSD history, so the administration at Hale failed miserably in the way they handled it and dealt with the parents," said parent Rodney Olson, adding that there was no direct communication from school officials. "With no communication, you can imagine the anger and confusion that was present."

"We had a suspect and we weren't sure where that suspect was," said Cortines, who was visiting schools affected by the lockdown as well as Gardena High School, the site of a classroom shooting where two students were wounded on Tuesday. "I was not willing to take a chance to let students go to the restroom and have someone get shot."

Security will be beefed up at middle and high schools across the district for the next two weeks and crisis counselors will also be available to students, Cortines said.